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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

US2UK – Transporting Salt & Pepper (Tow Vehicle & Travel Trailer)

Please note that
the information provided here are the steps we took to
bring our vehicle and trailer over for a visit. If you are intending to remain in the U.K. or
Europe, there will undoubtedly be more items on your checklist. But to bring a vehicle over temporarily, it
is quite simple. Also, this posting does
not cover the steps we took to get Salt’s systems to work in the U.K. and
Europe – that will be coming soon (or soon after we get over there and figure
it all out.)

When it comes down to it, there are very few items that
need to be done in order to transport your vehicle and trailer to the UK. (But then again, maybe I think this because
Alan has done the lion’s share of the work.)
But timing is very important, so start the process early.

First, you should get comfortable with the Roll on/Roll
off (RORO) type of transportation. RORO
requires that someone drive your vehicle and trailer onto the vessel where it
is strapped down but not put in a cargo container. Given our love for the Salt & Pepper, we
were not thrilled about the prospect of having someone driving them on and off
(and on and off – there will likely be at least one vessel change in the
journey) but sometimes you simply have no choice. Once you are comfortable with that part, set
about hiring a freight forwarder.

For the freight forwarder, Alan received bids from five
different firms, two of which came via uship.com, a freight forwarding bidding
site. A couple of items to look for: Do they include Marine Insurance in your
bid? Do they provide agents on each end
of the trip to guide you through customs and the export/import requirements? Being new to this, we also wanted someone with
whom it was easy to communicate—not only language-wise but also the method of
communication (email, telephone, etc.) We
opted for a firm based in the U.K. (Hill Shipping), they were not the cheapest
nor the most expensive, but we put a premium on having the firm located in the
country where we would be passing through customs (figuring this would be the
trickiest, and most difficult set of requirements to understand, we wanted to
be able to rely on local knowledge.)

Once the selection was made the lists began anew: News to us was that we could not pack
anything inside of Salt (we had asked this to many of the forwarders before and
the answers varied from “sure as long as it is strapped down” to “no.” Hill’s answer was closer to “no.”) Basically, both vehicles need to be able to
be opened at will by a customs agent, which is understandable. The risk of theft is, apparently, high on the
open seas so the shipping companies make it a point of stating that they will
not accept anything packed inside either vehicle. (This left us with a ton of checked baggage,
but that is yet another posting.) And to
top it off, marine insurance will not cover theft. None the less, when the final packing came we
did leave some items inside of Salt: Dishes, pots, pans and linens; but all items
that we would not be heartbroken to see stolen.

Also not allowed onto the vessel: LP Tanks unless they have been purged and
certified (costly to have performed at $50-$100/tank, so we opted to just buy
new ones when we arrive in the U.K.) and no more than a quarter of a tank of
gas in the tow vehicle.

We had to ship the Pepper’s title (actual title) over to
the freight forwarder who will apparently return it to us on the other end (Salt’s
title was not required as it is not considered a moving vehicle.) Speaking of the other end, you must have
secured international vehicle insurance for both vehicles prior to driving them
away in the U.K. We selected THUM Insurance as an agent for this, they are located in the U.S. and can provide
the needed coverage and the “green card” required for driving overseas.

As I mentioned before, timing is the biggest
concern. These RORO vessels do not leave
every day nor even every week. From
Galveston, they seemed to leave once a month.
Indeed, all the bids we received mentioned the same sailing date out of
Galveston so clearly the forwarders are all using the same vessel. The actual shipping date is likely to vary by
a few days, but you still need to have your vehicles at the dock up to ten days
prior to loading (the freight forwarder will give you the exact date.) Couple these ten days with two more port
stops, a two week crossing, a change of vessel in Europe and it quickly adds up
to over six weeks before you will see your rig again. That is hard to take. So plan ahead! Missing one boat means adding another four
weeks to your itinerary.

After the weeks and weeks of preparation, the actual
dropping of Salt & Pepper was anticlimactic (if you leave out the heartache
and indigestion.) We were given driving
directions to the Port and had to be escorted onto the dock by the local
agent. He drove us to the parking area
where we removed the license plates (easily stolen so it is highly recommended
to remove them before loading) unplugged Salt from the Pepper (but left them
hitched), took a few pictures, received two flimsy pieces of paper in exchange
for our beloved rig and walked away.